Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi died from suicide “while undertaking a terror attack that murdered 22 innocent victims and injured many others”, an inquest has concluded.
Some of the victims’ families urged Sir John Saunders, chairman of the public inquiry into the terror attack, not to record the cause of death simply as “suicide”, given what Abedi had done.
Lawyers acting for the families in legal submissions said: “To formally record his death as simply ‘suicide’ and shorn of all reference to his murderous attack would fundamentally fail to record the true circumstances of his death and unjustly misrepresent and minimise the true impact of his mode of death.”
Abedi detonated his shrapnel-packed, home-made rucksack bomb at the end of an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017.
The explosion sent out thousands of nuts and bolts, shredding everything in their path.
Following the blast, four body bags containing his remains were taken by private ambulance with a police escort to the Royal Liverpool Hospital, where a post-mortem examination was carried out.
He was identified after his DNA matched that being held by the Home Office following his arrest by police for shoplifting in 2012.
Sir John was legally obliged to hold an inquest because Abedi had a sudden and violent death.
After a documentary inquest rather than a public hearing in a coroner’s court, Sir John, acting as a coroner, released details of his ruling on Wednesday.
The medical cause of the 22-year-old’s death was blast injuries.
Recording the circumstances of how Abedi died, Sir John said: “The deceased died at 10.31pm on May 22 2017 in the City Room of the Manchester Arena in the Victoria Exchange Complex in Manchester.
“The deceased died near to the entrance doors to the Manchester Arena, when he detonated an explosive device that he had made with his brother and carried into the City Room in a backpack as part of a planned terror attack.
“In detonating the device the deceased murdered 22 innocent victims and injured many others.”
The bomber’s brother, Hashem Abedi, now 23, is serving life in jail for murder, with a minimum of 55 years before parole, for his part in the plot.
In March, the third and final volume of the report following the Manchester Arena Public Inquiry was published.
It concluded security services were guilty of “a significant missed opportunity to take action that might have prevented” the bombing.
Sir John’s first inquiry report, published in June 2021, focused on security arrangements on the night of the bombing and highlighted a string of “missed opportunities” to intercept Abedi before he detonated his device.
His second report, published in November last year, was highly critical of the emergency service response.
